ceeboo wrote: ↑Tue Dec 17, 2024 9:17 pm
I enjoyed that episode, Kisk.
As a devout Mormon who really wanted the BYU job (I assume these things - correct me if I am wrong) how did you feel/react when you didn't get the job?
That's two endorsements, folks! Tom and ceeboo! Thanks guys!
So, it was hard. I was not extremely surprised. First, my mentor at BYU was not well liked by all the faculty, and the people in the department definitely felt I was his protege. He was also out of power, and the new head of the section in the department clearly had his eye on someone else. The person he wanted is who they ended up hiring.
Finally, my mentor was probably no longer completely in my corner because he had gone down some strange religious path in which he had essentially started a kind of mini cult on campus, and, when he asked me about the Book of Abraham at the welcome lunch during my visit, I clearly gave an answer he did not like. Unbeknownst to me, he believed the old Nibley apologetic about the esoteric nature of Egyptian hieroglyphs was essentially true, and I laughed about it out loud right in front of him. Bad move on my part, but, then, I don't think I was really who they wanted.
At the time, I was not ready to understand that I was not a good fit for the job, and I would never be a good fit for it. I am not good LDS material, and I am certainly not good BYU material. BYU Classics is great. I love the people there, and they do really good work. I have interviewed their alumni for jobs where I work, and they do well. I have had their alumni as grad students at my institution, and they are really lovely, intelligent people with great training in the languages. But, I am allergic to authoritarianism, and both the LDS Church and BYU lean authoritarian. Whatever the Brethren say, you know.
Today, I am really happy I did not end up at BYU. It would have been a terrible fit, and I would have ended up being very unhappy. Still, I remember my days at BYU very fondly. I am so grateful I went there. It was an important step in my journey, but it is not a place I can ever return to.
